Why Study Business Law?

These readings will help you better understand why the business school curriculum includes business law and legal environment courses and how knowledge of the law can be used to enhance the value of the firm.

Reading: Law and the Business School Curriculum
(Prof. George Seidel 2017)

Reading: Rediscovering the Power of Law in Business Education
(Robert Bird and Janine Hiller Feb 23, 2016)

Reading:  Review of the book by Prof. George Siedel (2017):  Three Pillar Model for Business Decisions — Strategy, Law and Ethics.  Siedel argues that business leaders should become legally savvy, understand effective risk management strategies, better align strategy and law to increase the value of the firm, and use that knowledge to develop an ethical organization.

Podcast:   (Interview with Robert Bird, Prof of Business Law and Ethics, and President-elect of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, June 2020)      Future of business law, Corporate legal strategy, Turning compliance into a competitive advantage. (38 min; start at 1:20) .   This podcast will provide you with a deeper understanding of the role of law in business, particularly how it can be used strategically to give a firm a competitive advantage.

General Resources

For a broader overview of the Introduction to Law module or to fill in any gaps after you select content from the topics below, you might want to look at a chapter in a more traditional textbook.

Reading:  Introduction to Law, Chapter 1 from The Legal Environment of Business by Lau and Johnson

Reading:  The Nature and Sources of Law, Unit 1 in Business Law by the Saylor Academy.

Purpose and Function of Law

Video: Introduction to Law  by Ida Jones (13:55)   This is a short video providing a definition of the law and an overview of several theories of jurisprudence.

Reading:    Purposes and Functions of Law from Business Law Basics

Classifications of Law

Reading:  Classifications of Law from Business Law Basics

Video (1:51) and Reading:  Civil versus Criminal Law, a brief explanation by Prof Jason Gordon

Video: What is the difference between civil cases and criminal cases? (2:11)

Video (by Prof. Jay Milbrandt): Civil law vs Criminal law explained  (5:50).   In this short video, Prof Milbrandt stresses the distinction between “guilt” and “liability” and explains the difference between the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard used in criminal cases and the “preponderance of the evidence” standard used in civil cases.  He illustrates these distinctions in both the OJ Simpson case (not guilty of homicide but liable for wrongful death) and the George Zimmerman case (not guilty of second-degree murder for killing Travon Martin).

Reading: Classification of Law – Criminal and Civil

Sources of Law

Video:  Sources of Law in the US (7:38).  This video produced by LawShelf identifies and explains each of the primary sources of law, using graphics to explain each source.

Video: Sources of Law (7:48)   This lecture by Professor Ida Jones discusses how federal, state, and local regulations combined with case precedents form the nation’s laws.

Reading: Sources of Law   from Business Law Basics

Reading: Executive Orders (ABA Fact Check)

Stare Decisis and the Role of Precedent

Video: Precedent (1:46)   An overview of the different forms of precedents.

Video: What is Binding Case Law? (2:23)   This video by US LawEssentials examines how precedent is used by considering case precedents in New York and New Jersey on whether poker qualifies as illegal gambling.

Video: Stare Decisis (4:12)   Understand the doctrine that obligates courts to consider precedent when making decisions.

Video: The Doctrine of Precedent Made Easy (11:10)   Although the narrator is describing the doctrine of precedent in England, you may find his examples and analogies helpful in understanding binding and persuasive precedent, as well how the courts distinguish and sometimes overrule precedent.

Legal Analysis and the FIRAC model

As explained in the Legal Reasoning section at the beginning of this book, attorneys use the FIRAC model to analyze and apply the law to various legal and business problems.  In law schools, IRAC (or FIRAC when you include facts) is the recommended structure for answering an essay exam question.  In your business law course, your instructor may expect you to use FIRAC to solve business problems during in-class exercises or in written assignments for your course.  Come back to these explanations as often as necessary to help you begin to “think like a lawyer!”  .

Reading:  Helpful Hints to Writing a Better IRAC

Video:  Legal Writing:  What is IRAC?  (2:54)

Video: Using the IRAC Method (4:07)

Video:  IRAC Method for Essays (5:06)